AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER IN RUSSIA.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1284, 13 June 1883, Page 2

AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER IN RUSSIA.

The Rev. Dr. John Hall, who travelled in Russia last summer, has been describing his impressions of the country to an audience in New York. The following are extracts from his address :— " One of the first lessons that I learnt in Russia was humility. I confess to have been guilty often of boasting of the ma;*>:li ,„- •" f- 1 -,,

United States ; but when we think of the extent of Eussia we have to drop our swagger and boasting and become meek and moderate. From east to west Bussia is 6000 miles across, and from north to south 3000 miles, or, in round numbers, Eussia has double the extent of territory possessed by the United States; In the matter of unoccupied land, too, Russia is our superior. In some parts the population is only two persons to the square mile, and the average for the entire country is only 10 to the squai'e mile. It is easy to see, therefore,, the enormous .facilities Eussia has for producing cereals, and you can imagine the mighty power in the public policies of the world possessed by this people. The physical surroundings, in Russia are not dissimilar to those in New Jersey. The land is only partly cultivated : it is mostly flat, in many places marshy, and in others covered with a growth of inferior wood. Imagine New Jersey magnified by 10,000, and you can form a picture of Eussia. The temperature in July and August is very like that experienced by the people of New Jersey in May or Jane. Any of you will be surprised to learn tliat Siberia, about which Aye have heard such terrible stories, is the best and richest province in Russia. Several of the exiles have become rich and prosperous. I have hope for Russia. We have known how slowly 5,000,000 of freed men have risen, surrounded, as they have been, by every favourable circumstance. The process is necessarily slow. Men in masses go down easily, but it is not so easy to lift them up. We must re member that it was only in 1800 that 40,000,000 of Russian serfs were set free. But schools have become more plentiful ; trade is becoming a factor ; the sense of freedom among the people is growing ; the power to read and the demand for books are increasing ; and the. process of raising is surely going on. Eussia looks out upon Europe through the eye of St. Petersburgh ; but Europe also looks in through that eye ; and I am one of those that believe that a Government at once limited and liberal for Eussia is within a measurable distance of realisation,"